Board Gamer Do’s and Don’ts

DON’T

Don’t shuffle your cards like they do in the movies! Seriously, it will bend TF out of your cards. Games are expensive and there’s no reason to add unnecessary wear and tear. And if you do this to someone else’s cards…that’s just rude.

DO

Shuffle your cards gently using the “side shuffle”, like the gif below! It doesn’t damage your cards AND it’s much faster.

DON’T

If you are teaching a group of people a new game it is NOT okay to sit there and read the rules out loud word for word! Whenever I see someone doing this the rest of the table is either zoned out or on their phones.

DO

Come prepared! If you’re teaching a new game, it’s okay if you haven’t played it! But you should understand the rules enough to teach it and answer simple questions the players may have. Reading the rules over once and watching a YouTube video will give you enough information. If you don’t know the rules, let the table know when people sit down. “Hey I don’t know how to play this yet and I haven’t read the rules. Do you mind learning it with me?” That gives people a heads up that it will take a bit of time to get moving and they have the choice of opting out.

DON’T

If someone else is teaching a game that you have played, don’t butt in and “help” them teach it! When more than one person is teaching something it just confuses the other players and ends up looking like a spitting contest.

DO

If you think that they explained one of the rules incorrectly, you can phrase it as if you are unsure, which will cause less tension at the table. “Oh, I always thought the game ended when you have 5 trains remaining, not 10. I’m just going to double check in the rules very quickly.” If you can see that they are struggling offering to help is nice (“Would you like me to help you explain this game? I played it just last week.”), but if they say no then let them be.

Smile and nod until they are done explaining the rules.

DON’T

I have noticed that when people play games they put the bottom of the box inside of the top of the box to easily access the rules and other components. DON’T DO THAT! When you attempt to separate these two pieces later on, you will end up stretching out the top of the box which makes it lose any suction it had. No suction means that when your game box is placed vertically there will be a gap and pieces will fall out.

DO

Place the top of the box perpendicular to the table like the gif below. It still allows access to the components inside, takes up the same amount of table space, and doesn’t require you to damage the sides of the box. Happy boxes happy shelf.